Unfortunately, there is a very good chance that some of the staples of the fighting game, mainly the X-Men characters, will not be seen. This includes characters like Wolverine, Storm, Phoenix, Magneto, Juggernaut, Sentinel, and Cyclops. You ever wonder why you do not see any of these characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Marvel does not own the rights to these characters. All the X-Men movies are made by FOX. FOX also owns the rights to The Fantastic Four, so don’t keep your hopes up for Dr. Doom or Super Skrull either. This also means no Deadpool or Colossus.

If you think this only spells doom for the fighting game, I would have to disagree. The exclusion of X-Men from the game allows Capcom to bring in new recruits that have yet to be seen in the franchise.

For example, Sony has recently shown to be somewhat lenient with Marvel and the rights to Spider-Man, as the web-slinger was included in Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War movie. This puts Spider-Man’s inclusion in the game much higher than any of the X-Men or Fantastic Four characters and could open up the possibility for Spider-Man’s iconic rogue gallery like Green Goblin, Dr. Octopus, or Venom to join in the fray. With so many iconic villains from X-Men and Fantastic Four most likely being left out, the game needs fresh new Marvel villains to fill the void and their exclusion heightens this chance by a lot.

“I DESERVE TO BE IN MvC:I. I HAD TO BE THE VILLAIN IN SPIDER-MAN 3.”

Returning characters of the franchise are somewhat more obvious outside of the X-Men.

It is practically a given that previously playable heroes in the franchise who are also in the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be coming back, as seen with the already announced Iron Man and Captain America. Heroes like Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye, Rocket Raccoon, War Machine, and Doctor Strange all have a high chance of getting into the game.

Veteran villains of the franchise like Thanos and Dormammu also have a high chance of being playable again.

Thanks to the popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, developers would be crazy to not add some of characters that are popular with the movie audience. Popular heroes like Black Widow, The Vision, Black Panther, Ant-Man, Scarlet Witch, and Groot have never been playable in a Marvel vs Capcom game so they would be great candidates to add some fresh faces to the franchise. Even characters in the Marvel Netflix series like Daredevil, The Punisher, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage would be strong contenders for the new game.

Villains like Loki, Ultron, and even Kingpin from Daredevil, who have never been playable in the franchise, would also certainly bring the hype. Like I said earlier, the game needs to fill the shoes of villain staples like Dr. Doom and Magneto who will most likely be left out.

Who do you think will be in the game? Sound off in the comment section below.